Railroad-frog.



PATENTED MAY 5, 190.8.

G. H. TRISGH. RAILRQAD FROG. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 17, 1907.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE HOWARD TRISQH, OF LLOYDELL, PENNSYLVANIA.

BAIiRQAD-FROG.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE H. TRISCH, a

citizen of the United States of America, re

siding at Lloydell, in the county of Cambria and State of Pennsylvania,have invented new and useful Improvements in Railroad- Frogs, of whichthe following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in railway switches, particularlywith reference to the construction of the frog and means for moving thefrog latch simultaneously with the switch points and for locking thefrog latch and switch points in position, and ,the said inventionconsists in the construction, combination and arrangement of deviceshereinafter described and claimed.

In the abcompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a top plan view of a railwayswitch constructed in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a detailtransverse sectional view of the same, taken on the plane indicated bythe line 22 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a detail top plan view of the frog.Fig. 4 is a sectional view of the same, taken on the plane indicated bythe line 44 of Fig. 3. Fig. 5 is a detail elevation latch. Fig. 6 is adetail transverse sectional view of the frog plate. Fig. 7 is atransverse sectional view taken on the plane indicated by the line 77 ofFig. 1. Fig. 8 is a detail perspective view, partly in section, of aportion of the frog latch, showing the connecting rod attached thereto.

In accordance with my invention, I provide a frog to be located at theintersection of two tracks at the point where one track rail crossesanother. In Fig. 1 of the drawings, tracks A, B are indicated and myimproved frog is shown disposed in the angle between the rails a, b ofsuch intersecting tracks. The frog plate 1 is of suitable size toreceive the proximate ends of the rails a, b thereon, the said railsbeing secured on the said frog plate by having their base flangesriveted or bolted thereto, as at 2. The said frog plate bears on and isspiked or otherwise suitably secured to certain of the cross ties 3. Onthe said frog late is the frog latch or bar 4, one end of w ich isrounded as at 5 and is disposed opposite the concaved ends 2 of theconverging rail ends a, b. The said end of the frog latch is providedwith a downwardly extending boss 6 which bears on the frog plate 1 andis connected thereto by a pivotal olt 7 the upper end of which isscrewed in a partly in section of the frog Specification of LettersPatent.

Application filed September 17, 1907.

Patented May 5, 1908.

Serial No 393,312.

threaded opening in said end of the frog latch or bar and is furthersecured therein as by means of a cross or key pin indicated at 8. Thelower portion of the said pivot bolt passes through an opening in thefrog plate and a nut 9 is screwed on the lower end of said pivot pin andis secured thereto by means of a key pin 10. That portion of the froglatch formed by the boss 6 bears on the frog late, the remaining portionof the said frog latch being s aced above the frog plate and the saidfrog atch is provided in its under side with transverse recesses 11, 12and at its free end under its underside with a slot 13 providing atongue 14 on the under side thereof, the said tongue terminating shortof the free end of the latch bar, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5.

On the frog plate are secured concentrically arranged. segmentalsupporting arms 15, 16 and 17 which respectively engage the recesses 11,12 and 13 so that the said supporting bars serve to support the freeportion of the frog latch and enable the latter to be moved angularly asmay be re uired to dispose it in line either with the rai a or the raill). The width of the said frog latch exceeds that of the heads of thesaid rails and is such that when said latch is in line with the rails aits inner side will aline with the inner sides of the heads of saidrails and, when such latch is in line with the rails b, its outer sidewill aline with the inner sides of such rails 11. The said supportingbars 15, 16 and 17 are provided at their ends with upstanding stopblocks 18 which are bolted thereon by the same bolts which are employedto bolt said supporting bars on the said frog plate, the said stopblocks being so related as to limit the extent of angular movement ofthe frog latch and hold the latter in the required position in alinementwith either the rails a or the rails 6, according tothe position inwhich such frog latch is disposed. The free end of the frog latch bearson the bar 17 and such bar is provided on its inner side with ahorizontally disposed web 19 which enters the slot 13 of the frog latch,so that the tongue or arm 14 under the free end of the frog latch bearsagainst the underside of such web or flange 19 and coacts therewith andwith the pivotal bolt connection between the frog latch and the froplate to hold thefrog latch in a perfectly horizontal position under allconditions, with its upper side level with the heads of the contiguousrail ends. The said supporting bar 17 is furthermore provided at itsouter edge with inverted Tshaped recesses 20 for the reception of theweb and-'Zbase flanges of the ends of the rails a, 1) between which thefree end of the frog latch operates. It will be observed that the saidends of the said rails and the said bar 17 mutually brace and stren thenone another so that such ends of the rai ls are prevented from yieldingor springing vertically, and the same is also true as to the said bar17. 4,

The switch points 21, 22 of the rails a, b, respectively, are connectedtogether by a rod 23, the ends of which are pivotally connected as at 24to plates 25 which are bolted or otherwise secured to the undersides ofsuch switch points near their free ends. A rock shaft 26 is mounted in abearing 27 which is secured on the projecting ends of certain of thecross ties and said rocking shaft has a rock arm 28 and a lever arm 29,the latter provided at its outer end with a weight 30 to old such leverarm in a horizontal position after it has been moved in either directionand cause it to lie close to the cross tie over which it plays. The arm23 of the said rock shaft is connected as by means of a rod 31 to theplate 25 which is attached to the switch point 21, hence the switchpoints may be moved simultaneously in either direction by means of therock shaft and its connections to cause the switch points to alineeither with the track A or the track B.

The frog latch 4 is connected. by a rod 32 to one arm of a bell crank 33which is pivotally mounted as at 34 on a plate 35 which is secured onthe projecting ends of certain of the cross ties, the said rod beingpivotally connected to the frog latch as at 36 and being also pivotallyconnected to the said bell crank. A bell crank 37 which is similar tothe bell crank 33 and is mounted at one side of the track a at a pointopposite the free ends of the switch point on a platev 38, has one ofits arms connected to one arm of the bell crank 33 by a rod 39 on theouter side of and parallel with the track A. The other arm of the bellcrank 37 is pivotally connected to a rod 40. The said rod has an offsetportion 41 whereby it is enabled to pass under the outer rail of thetrack A and under the switch point 22, the free end of the depressedportion of said rod extending into and being free to move longitudinallyto some extent in a tubular link 42 which forms stops for the outerends, of a pair of counter-acting coiled cushioning springs 43 44, theinner ends of which bear against opposite sides of a stop flange 45which is fixed on said rod. One end of the said tubular link 42 isconnected by a rod 46 to a plate 47 which is bolted to the under side ofthe base flange of the switch point 21, said rod 46 being pivotallyconnected to such plate and to such end of the tubular link, as shown indetail in Fig. 7.

It will be understood from the foregoing description that when theswitch lever 29 is thrown to move the switch point 21, 22 in eitherdirection, the connections including the elements 40, 42, 43, 44, 45 and46 between the switch point 21 and the bell crank 37, will cause thelatter to be turned and hence cause the rod 39 to communicate likemotion to the bell crank 33 and the rod. 32 to move the frog latch tothe required position, so that the frog latch and the switch points areconnected together and to the switch lever and such frog latch andswitch points are moved simultaneously by the operation of such lever.When the tubular link 42 is moved in either direction with and by theswitch point 21, it compresses one of the springs 43, 44 as the froglatch 4 is moved against the stop blocks 18 at either side thereof andhence said springs exert constant tension on such frog latch to lock thelatter in the position in which it is set and prevent the frog latchfrom being moved casually from such position.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is 1. A railway frog comprising a base plateand segmental concentrically disposed supporting bars thereon, one ofsaid supporting ars having a flange on its inner side, a frog latchpivotally mounted on said base plate having recesses on its under sideto clear the said supporting bars and provided at its outer end and itsunder side with a tongue bearing against the under side of the flange ofthe flanged supporting bar and stops to limit the angular movement ofsaid frog latch.

2. A railway frog comprising a base plate, a frog latch pivotallymounted thereon, and supporting bars for such frog latch on such baselate and having stop blocks to limit the angu ar movement of such froglatch.

In testimony whereof, I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE HOWARD TRISCH. Witnesses:

GEoRe GREsKo, JOHN SISARICK.

